Mini Laptop Review

- what are the pro's and con's of having a mini laptop vs having a regular size laptop?
since i'm going to be starting college in a few months i would like to know what the differences of the two would be besides the obvious size and price. and also if there are any particular brands to consider or avoid.

A Bigger laptops will have faster hardware and (obviously) give you a bigger screen resolution so you can see more things at once. If you're going to use it for college however, you should only be thinking about smaller laptops for other obvious reasons. If you're looking for an all-in-one computer that can play games and do multimedia tasks when you're not in class, the HP Pavilion dv2 is very well-rounded, though the battery only gets up to about 3.5 hours. Some people say it runs pretty hot though. Otherwise, the ASUS EEE 1000HE is the ultimate when it comes to college; 9+ hour battery, 10" screen, Macbook-like chiclet keyboard, and all sorts of fun little goodies. Video performance is sub-par though, so it's not much for playing games. dv2: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834147987 1000HE: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834220505

- Who makes a better Laptop, HP,or Dell.. Because i'm looking for a good used one, Full size/ or Mini.?
So i'm looking for a good used Laptop but would like to know if a HP is better than a DELL..And i'm looking at Mini laptops and 15" full size.. I would like to spend know more than about $300 for a good used one.. Hope you can let me know what your thoughts are on this matter. Thanks.

A I would definitely suggest going with a full-sized laptop because, as said before, minis are really awful. I would not suggest buying a used laptop unless it's from someone you know and trust because there could be any number of malware or even hardware problems with the computer that may cost you more and more money to repair. Between HP and Dell, it really just depends on the specs of the computer. If it were between two with the same specs, I would personally choose Dell, but HP is a fine computer as well. It also depends for which purposes you will be using the computer. Just distinguish which one has better hardware for the price you are getting. Also, if you're getting a used one, check which software they already have installed on it, which may tip the favor of your getting it and not having to spend another few hundred on software. I'm assuming for $300, you should want around a 2GHz processor, graphics card I don't think is significant for your purposes if you aren't gaming on it, 1 or 2 GB of RAM, and however much storage you want on the hard drive.